RECASTING “NATIVES”

Dean Worcester’s images of the Philippines circulated widely in the United States, fromthe halls of Capitol Hill in Washington to the St. Louis World’s Fair of 1904 to theparlors of middle-class Americans. As they circulated, the images changed—and evenwhen they didn’t, the changing contexts of their presentation told new stories aboutthe American colonial experience. Photographic images moved from the darkroom tothe printed pages of official state documents, most notably with the publication in1905 of the Census of the Philippine Islands. Here the surveillance powers of the statethat had been so crucial in pacifying the islands now joined with the documenting,collecting, and classifying impulses of the anthropological gaze.

The Career of an ImageTracing one photographic encounter as it moved from Dean

Worcester’s field work to its other public uses shows how theuneasy but necessary intimacy of the colonial encounter was

frequently stripped away by the time images circulated back to themetropole and were put to other political uses.

In this 1905 photograph, E. Y. Miller, an officer in the U.S. Army and thecolonial governor of the Palawan province, holds on his lap a Moro child.The boy was the son of Datu Batarosa, a powerful local chief with whom

Miller would have worked on a regular basis.Worcester’s caption: “Moro boy, type 1. Son of Datu Batarasa,

with Governor E. Y. Miller,” 1905. Location: Bona-Bona, Palawan

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A photo of the same boy withother children in the

background creates a differentimpression.

Worcester’s caption: “Moro boy,type 1. Son of Datu Batarasa. Full

length front view,” 1905Location: Bona-Bona, Palawan

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Miller drowned in 1910, and Worcester’s annual report as secretary of theinterior reproduced this image as its frontispiece, noting that the “provincial

service and the work for the non-Christian inhabitants of Palawan havesuffered an irreparable loss.” Worcester’s image of Lieutenant Miller

extended one man’s benevolence to that of the entire American colonialundertaking.

Title page and frontispiece, Ninth Annual Report of the Secretary of the Interior to thePhilippine Commission for the Fiscal Year Ended July 30, 1910 (Manila: Bureau of

Printing, 1910).

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In November 1913, NationalGeographic featured a hand-colored version of the photo.The caption focuses on theMoros, describing them as

“treacherous and unreliable”and stresses the need to bring

them under control.

By now, Captain Miller’sphotograph has begun to tell anew story, much less personal,more simplified, and far out of

Dean Worcester’s power tocontrol.

National Geographic caption: “A MORO BOY. The son of Dato Bata Rosa seated onthe knee of Captain E. G. Miller [sic], who lost his life while serving as Governor ofPalawan. The Moros are found in their greatest strength in the Island of Mindanaoand the Sulu Archipelago. They are unexcelled pirates and slave traders, treacherousand unreliable to the last degree. The whole race numbers about 300,000, has neverbeen brought under complete control and its pacification presents one of the most

difficult problems before the Philippine government.”

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Worcester as Storyteller

Like most colonial officials, Worcester returned regularly to the United States. By 1913,he had hired a booking agent who arranged paid lectures across the country. Duringhis two-year tour, Worcester’s images reappeared as lantern slides (sometimes hand-colored), projected in public auditoriums as a backdrop to Worcester’s own boomingvoice that spoke with great authority about the colonial project. In December 1913and January 1914, Worcester packed Carnegie Hall with a series of lectures on suchtopics as “The Picturesque Philippines” and “Wild Tribes of the Philippines.” The NewYork Times praised the lectures for including both photographs and films:

Each picture told a story of the marvelous progress made by Americans inteaching civilization to the savage tribes of the Philippines…. The savage,naked, dirty, and unkempt, was shown in still photographs, while thatsame one-time savage, clothed, intelligent in appearance, and clean, laterwas shown in moving pictures. [1]

Worcester’s visual extravaganza wowed not only the crowds at his lectures, butgovernment officials as well. One of the final stops on Dean Worcester’s U.S. speakingtour was in Washington, D.C., where he appeared before the Senate Committee on thePhilippines. His testimony was both oral and visual: on December 30, 1914, he lecturedthe senators for two hours in a darkened committee room illuminated by the glow of hislantern slides.

Old / New

As the photographs that Dean Worcester and others took in the Philippines werecollected, sorted, and circulated throughout the United States, one style emerged as avisual habit that shows the power of photography as its anthropological aims were putto storytelling ends. Published works about the Philippines—by Dean Worcester orothers—regularly featured images of transformation, both of the Philippine landscapeand its inhabitants: a paved road replaces a meandering footpath; a modernschoolhouse stands next to a thatch-roofed hut; a long-haired boy returns as a white-suited man. The visual trope of sequential transformation was among the most popularways of depicting America’s colonial enterprise, appearing in books, magazines, andeven in official government reports.

Putting images in a sequence creates a narrative—with a beginning, a middle, and anend. In an era that cherished progress, uplift, and evolution as keywords of civilization,photographic sequences told persuasive stories to Americans about the nation’s newimperial endeavors in the Philippines. Several can be found in Dean Worcester’s massiveaccount of U.S. colonial policy, The Philippines: Past and Present, published in 1914(below).

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The caption of the frontispiece to Worcester’s 1914 book reads:“The Metamorphosis of a Bontoc Igorot. Two photographs of a Pit-a-pit, a

Bontoc Igorot boy. The second was taken nine years after the first.”

The text explains that the man became a doctor. By including the contrastingimages of a barefoot boy and a white-suited man as the first pictures in hisbook, Dean Worcester presented images as evidence of the achievements of

the colonial project.

Title page and frontispiece, Dean C. Worcester,The Philippines Past and Present (1914).

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Dean Worcester not only usedimages to document personaltransformation, but also theremaking of the Philippinelandscape. Roads, bridges,trains, and farm equipmentappear in his photograph

collection as signs ofmodernization.

captions:top: “The Old Way ofCrossing a River.”

bottom: “The New Way ofCrossing a River.”

Dean C. Worcester, The Philippines Past and Present (1914).

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captions:top: “Old-style Road acrossLowlands. Tracks of this sortbecome completely impassable

during the rainy season.”

bottom: “New-style Road acrossLowlands. Roads like this are

passable at all times.”

Dean C. Worcester, The Philippines Past and Present (1914).

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BakidanBakidan was a Kalinga chief whom Worcester knew well from his

travels in the mountains of Luzon. Over time, however, asWorcester published accounts of his time in the Philippines,

descriptions of his relationship to Bakidan changed from depictionsthat highlighted close and personal relations to stories that erased

Bakidan’s individuality and highlighted his tribal and “savage”identity.

This photograph ofBakidan, a Kalinga chief,was taken in 1905 during

an extended stay byWorcester in the village of

Bunuan in the northernPhilippines.

Worcester’s caption:“Kalinga man named

Bakidan, type 1. Half lengthfront view,” 1905

Location: Bunuan, Cagayan

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Worcester reproduced this image of Bakidan inThe Philippines Past and Present with a captionstating that he “saved the lives” of Worcesterand others during their first trip to Kalinga

country.

Book caption: “Bakidan. This Kalinga chief savedthe lives of Colonel Blas Villamor, Mr. Samuel E.

Kane, and the author during the first trip ever madethrough the Kalinga country by outsiders.”

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Taken during his 1905 journey to Bunuan, this photograph shows Bakidan(highlighted in red) with three other chiefs, and, at the center, Worcester and

Colonel Villamor. These four chiefs appear elsewhere in Worcester’sphotographic collection, but not identified as chiefs or brothers.

Worcester’s caption: “Blas Villamor, Bakidan, Saking, and two other brothers ofBakidan, and myself. There are six brothers in this family and they rule the upper

Nabuagan River valley. Bakidan is the most powerful,” 1905.Location: Bunuan, Cagayan

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In his 1914 book, Worcester depicted his trip to the Kalinga as a journey “InHostile Country” rather than a visit to a leading local politician. Worcester

noted that “the four chiefs were not as yet ready to lay down their shields orhead-axes.”

Book caption: “In Hostile Country. Colonel Villamor and the author at Bakidan’splace in the Kalinga country. The four chiefs were not as yet ready to lay down their

shields or head-axes.”

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From Fact to Fiction

Sometimes the images in the Dean Worcester collection were simplified or altered byWorcester to serve his own political ends—he took them for political purposes, ofcourse. But Worcester—a politician, anthropologist, scientist, and photographer—wasunique. Sometimes images of Filipinos were used by other authors and publishers, manyof whom had little connection to the Philippines and felt less compunction aboutplaying fast and loose with the photographic record. Consider the following depiction ofthe “educational value of the constabulary,” published in Frederick Chamberlin’s ThePhilippine Problem, 1898–1913 (1913).

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This sequence of photographs was published in the 1910s both in agovernment report and a popular account of U.S. Philippine policy. At first

glance, the series appears to tell a story of benevolent colonialism by tracingthe transformation of a soldier after “a year in jail.” But the photographic

archive suggests a more complicated history.

Illustration in Frederick Chamberlin, The Philippine Problem, 1898–1913(Boston: Little, Brown, 1913).

Book caption: “Educational Value of the Constabulary. 1. Bontoc Igorot on enteringthe service, 1901. 2. After a year’s service, 1902. 3. After two years’ service, 1903.”

[Chamberlin_Feb_03_000005_EdConst]

This sequence was a famous image of U.S. colonialism in the Philippines, depicted ingovernment documents and popular publications. But when we trace the narrativeback from the printed page to the moment of photographic encounter, the story getsmore complicated. Worcester’s notes and archives tell a different story oftransformation, in which he took four different photographs in 1901, and only arrangedthem much later in a sequence with a narrative of colonial uplift.

Worcester’s notes show that the firstphotograph in the reprinted sequence wastaken in February 1901 in Manila, andthat Worcester had gone out of his wayto recruit sitters. “Took the Igorroteshome, fed them up and photographedthem,” he noted on February 6. [2]

Worcester’s caption: “Bontoc Igorot man, type 5.

Half length profile view,” 1901.Location: Manila, Manila

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The second photograph of the sequence—along with the one shown below—wereboth taken in Manila in June 1901, andthus could not have reflected “a year’sservice” in the Philippine Constabulary, asthe series caption claimed.

Worcester’s caption: “Bontoc Igorot man, type 5.

2/3 length profile view,” 1901.Location: Manila, Manila

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The front view of this man, clearly takenat the same time as the middle pictureabove, allows his face to be seen.

Worcester’s caption: “Bontoc Igorot man, type 5.

Half length front view,” 1901.Location: Manila, Manila

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It is unclear when or where the thirdphotograph in the sequence was taken. Itmay have been taken in Manila in 1901 orin the highland province of Bontoc in1903. While this appears to be Francisco,the same man depicted in the first of thethree photographs of the sequence, itwas not taken “after a year in jail,” asWorcester reported in published writingsaccompanying these images.

Worcester’s caption: “Bontoc Igorot man, type 5.

After a year in jail.Half length profile view,” 1901.

Location: Bontoc, Bontoc

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In his diary for June 21, 1901, Worcesternoted that “Francisco had on a full rig ofcloths [sic]—white coat, trousers madeout of a pair of miner’s Alaska drawers,army leggings and American shoes,”closely matching this image of aconstabulary uniform (above). But inManila that June, Worcester alsophotographed Francisco in a more“primitive” state (right).

Worcester’s caption: “Bontoc Igorot man, type 5.

Called Francisco.Half length front view,” 1901.

Location: Manila

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These images show the power of photographic manipulation, and cause us to ask whyan author might have wanted to shuffle photographs in service of a good story. Butthey also make us wonder whether Dean Worcester was not so much a puppet-masterbut also entranced by his own narrative of colonial control and uplift. Evidencesuggests that he only put the images into this narrative in a government report in1910, but that he used the images quite often afterward, even in his congressionaltestimony in 1914, when he told Congress that “I will show you the evolution of thefirst Bontoc soldier who ever enlisted…. This man is a chief named ‘Francisco,’ dressedas he had been when I first saw him. [indicating] This slide shows how he looked ayear after, after he had been in contact with the Americans.” [3] Colonial storytellingwas a complicated matter that was never entirely under the storytellers’ control.

Recasting “Natives” for the National Geographic

The blend of the scientific and the touristic, the official and the private that markedcolonial Philippine photography reached its apotheosis in the pages of NationalGeographic, the iconic magazine that brought the world to the parlors of VictorianAmerica. Founded in 1888, the National Geographic Society initially found few readersfor its dry and scholarly publications. But subscriptions to The National GeographicMagazine skyrocketed after the U.S. embarked on overseas colonization, and arevolution in printing technology enlivened the pages with photographs—many of thempainstakingly tinted and reproduced in full color. Articles on the Philippines appearedwith regularity after 1898—over 30 were published between 1898 and 1908—andphotographs from Dean Worcester’s collection illustrated many of them.

The connections between Worcester’s entourage and the National Geographic Societywere thick and deep: photographer Charles Martin, who appears often in WorcesterCollection photographs (he took many of them as well) became head of the NGSPhotographic Laboratory in 1915 after he left the U.S. Army.

In the pages of the magazine, Worcester shared his familiar stories of colonial uplift,and readers delighted at the array of images that illustrated his articles. Hisphotographic essays were not without controversy, however; a 1903 article byanother author that depicted bare-breasted Filipina women prompted debate amongthe magazine’s editors about its propriety. Worcester made a claim for the images’scientific value, won the argument, and revolutionized the magazine’s editorialpractices.

In November 1913,National Geographic juxtaposed the

familiar and the exotic in an article byDean Worcester, with a run of hand-colored photographic illustrations of

rural Filipinos.

cover, The National GeographicMagazine, November 1913

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National Geographic Gallery

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The title of Dean Worcester’s article:“The Non-Christian Peoples of the

Philippine IslandsWith an Account of What Has Been

Done for Them under American Rule”

The National Geographic Magazine,November 1913

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Thumbnails show the layout of the photographs selected and colorized forWorcester’s article.

The National Geographic Magazine, November 1913

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Presenting “Peoples”Through his text and images—carefully hand-colored by National

Geographic staffers—Dean Worcester conveyed to a mass audienceof American readers his sense of the racial landscape of the

Philippines and boasted of “what has been done for them underAmerican rule.” The images selected for his November 1913

National Geographic article introduced appealing figuresrepresenting tribes rather than individuals; vibrant colorsaccentuated the sense of the exotic for American readers.

“A Mandaya Warrior” and “A Mandaya Woman”

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“Mangyans” (above) and “Ilongot Woman and Girls”

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“A Negrito” (top left); “A Tagakaolo” (top right)“A Lubuagan Igorot Woman” (bottom two images)

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“Tiruray Women” (top)“A Tingian Girl” (bottom left); “A Tingian Girl in Mourning” (bottom right)

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“An Ilongot Family” (left) and “Wild Tinglians of Apayao” (right)

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“A Tingian Man” (left) and “A Moro Boy” (right)

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